My lifeline
by Sunshine8
Summary: The Dream Team is 26 now; Harry's a professional seeker, Ron's an Auror, Hermione's a scientist...and something is trying to destroy their happiness. RR REVISED AND UPDATED!
1. I wanna catch him

Disclaimer: as always, all this Potter stuff is property of JK Rowling…only the plot and the new characters are mine.

IT'S A PROMISE 

Welcome to the jungle 

_Watch it bring you to your knees_

_Welcome to the jungle_

_If you want you're gonna bleed_

_But it's the price you pay_

Welcome to the jungle, Guns N'Roses

*****************

Ginny and Hermione sat down at their favourite table in the Leaky Cauldron and decided to take there their lunch. Harry was at his training with the Chudley Cannons and Ron was still outside investigating, so they decided to have lunch together.

Ginny put down her fork and smiled at her best friend. "What's up with you, Hermione?"

Hermione seemed distracted. "Sorry?"

"You see? Something is up with you. The question is: what?"

"It's nothing…" she tried, but a moment later glanced up and met Ginn's eyes. "Ok, ok, I think…I feel nervous."

Ginny arched an eyebrow. "About the wedding?"

"Yes…well, not exactly…"

"…you're just afraid, cause you love him and this is the truth, but there's another truth, and that's your fear about your future with him." Ginny said naturally.

Hermione was shocked. "How do you know this?"

Ginny laughed. "Oh, come on, Hermione! I married the most famous wizard in the magic world almost one year ago! I'm still a fresh wife."

"I'm totally sure about loving him," Hermione said with a puzzled and nervous look in her eyes. "But I'm totally afraid of what can happen if we go on like a married couple. I mean, there are things we've never discussed until now, but then we'll have to talk about things like…well, our jobs, future children, our projects…"

"What about your jobs?" 

Hermione sighed loudly. "There's nothing to say, Ginny. I know how much your brother loves his job, and I don't want to be selfish, but this Raven thing is driving me crazy. I've nightmares every night, I wish I could be sure this is just my imagination which is totally gone this time, but still…I've bad forebodings."

Ginny bit her lip and nodded. "I can imagine, and I can understand you and your fear. But what can you do?"

"Nothing." Hermione passed her hand through her hair. "It's Ron we're talking about, isn't he? Since when he's careful and listens to anyone's advice?" she smiled nervously and drank her glass of wine.

"Well, if this can help you, every time I see Harry diving on that broom of his, my heart goes crazy." Ginny said with a frown. "Every time he shows how good and brave he is with that piece of  wood, I just want to close my eyes and open them again finding him with his feet on the ground, vertically if this is possible."

Hermione smiled a bit. "How comes that these husbands are such a problem for us?"

"Oh, don't ask me. They say 'we can't understand women', and we say 'we can't help but worry about our men'. It's a mistery, I think. There's no rational explanation."

"I agree."

Ginny hesitated. "Hermione…what do you think about children?"

"You're asking if I want any?" Ginny nodded. "Well, of course I want children from Ron…but right now I don't think it's a good idea. We're both very taken up with the work and all…I'd like to take one step at a time."

"And what's Ron's opinion?"

"We've never talked about this, actually." She simply said.

"I'm sure he just wants to marry you for now, but only for now…" Ginny said with a sing-song voice.

Hermione looked at her and smirked. "Have you ever talked about this with Harry?"

"Well, yeah. Once he brought it up. He wants two sons, maybe three, but we think it's just a bit too early. Perhaps next year…" she said naturally.

Hermione glanced at her watch and sighed in frustration. "See? It's half past two. I told him to owl me before lunchtime to tell me about him talking to the priest. Is anywhere near me a owl? Obviously not. He's too busy with his damn job of his to take care of his own wedding." She said with a bitter tone.

Ginny frowned. "Poor man. He's going to marry his best friend, while he's trying to capture an evil killer and his gang. What a pity, do you let him sleep during nights at least?"

"My, Ginny!" Hermione looked at her with a horrified expression. "Well, not every night…"

"You two should go and leave for the honeymoon tomorrow morning, you know." Ginny said, shaking her head with a grin.

Ron knocked  twice on his chief's door, then went in. The room was very quite, and William Breadliffe was sitting behind his desk, still with a mobile in his hand. When he saw Ron coming he motioned him to sit down in front of the desk, and kept on talking for almost a minute, then he put down the mobile and looked at Ron.

"So?" he snapped.

"William, my division is working hard over this. You just can't let Clive Russel on Raven, this is _my_ case." He said a bit animately, but trying to keep his composture.

"Ron, you're doing a very good job indeed." The man said with a neutral expression.

"But?"

"But this Raven thing is becoming quite huge, and I can't wait anymore. The press is a bloody thorn in the waist, the Ministry is going crazy with these attacks, they say the relationships between wizards and muggles are going to the hell, if we don't catch that damn man."

"And do you think Clive and his fucking team of idiots will do better than us?"

"Honestly, Ron." His chief frowned. "Clive is the idiot we all know, but he has good investigators, and did quite a job when I sent him to talk with the muggle policemen."

"This is because he can do _only_ this!" said an angry Ron. "Let's put him on a broom to follow Raven on his Speedlight 2010, let's see if he falls off one or two seconds after!"

"I know!" the man seemed quite exasperated.

"Then why are you doing this, William?"

"Ron, let's be totally serious." He said. "You're going to get married in less than a month, and to be completely honest, I don't think a month will be sufficient to catch that bloody Raven. I don't want your division going on with the investigations without you, and I don't think your wife would like if I called you while you two are on your honeymoon. Think about this."

Ron threw his hand up in exasperation. "So, that's it. You're cutting me off cause I'm getting married."

"Ron, be mature…"

"I _am _mature, William!" he nearly yelled. "You think I'm acting distracted because of my wedding? Funny, cause right yesterday my fiancee said I'm totally forgetting her and our wedding. I'm giving my total attention to this fucking case, bloody hell!"

"And what if you don't catch him in a month, Ron? What will you do, mh? Will you give up your honeymoon?"

"Who says I can't catch that son of a bitch in a month?"

"But what if you don't?"

"Let's live day by day, ok?" Ron looked at him with a strong gaze. "Look, I'm not an irresponsible git. I know how bad the situation is, and I truly care for muggle and muggleborns, my fiancee happens to be a muggleborn herself. You can trust me, and beside I'm the best and you know this."

William shook his head and then grinned. "I really hope you'll do your best, or either your fiancee or I are going to beat the hell out of you."

Ron smirked and winked at him. "Don't take this bad, Will, but I still prefer her, altough I love you very much."

The man laughed. "Go on, you arsehole, and find Raven the soonest you can."

"Yes, sir." He stood up and went out of the room.

Ron came home at 19.30. He immediately looked for Hermione in the kitchen, but he just found the dinner cooking all by itself. This wasn't a good sign at all: she didn't cook when she was sad or angry, or even both. So he went to their room, and finally found her in the bathroom, in the tub; she was having a bath and was all naked under the water, with her long hair pulled up in an unruly bun. Even if he could sense her rage (she didn't even turn when he called her coming in), he couldn't help but stare at her: she was so beautiful, with locks of hair falling along her face, and her chocolate eyes deeper than ever.

"Here you are." He said, and began to unbutton his shirt. She still didn't flinch and he took off his shirt and jeans. "Do you mind if I join you?" without waiting for her answer, he took off his boxers and slipped in the tub, putting himself with his back against the edge; he tried to put his hands on her shoulders to ease her back against his chest, but she threw them away. "Hermione, are you going to talk to me eventually?"

"No." she simply said, with a strong tone of voice.

"Good. So you're going to avoid me all the evening."

"Yes."

"Too bad, don't you think? We still have to resume that talk of ours…" he put  his arms around her waist and tried to make her lean back against him again, but she refused and pushed away his arms.

"Leave me alone! I'm taking a bath, who asked you to join me?!" she yelled.

"Don't act that childish, please!" he snapped, and immediately saw with regret her turning around to look at him, eyes burning with rage.

"You know, for once I don't want to talk to you at all! And if you don't leave off, then I'll go away!" she stood up, but he forced her down again. "Leave me alone, bloody hell!"

He was a bit surprised to hear her swearing, but simply held her upper arms strongly. "I know I promised you we would go and talk to the priest, but I had too much work, and…"

"Oh, yes, of course! Your work! Cause what's more important in your life than your job?" she was furious.

"Don't act like a ninny, Hermione, there's a bloody killer outside who's killing tons of innocent people, I think this is more important than your damn priest!"

"Come on, say it! Say you have second thoughts!" she yelled with a trembling voice. "Say you don't want to marry me anymore!!"

He shook his head in astonishment. "Are you gone fucking mad, Hermione?!"

"I'm tired, all right?!" she was near tears now. "I'm tired of arranging a wedding in which you don't have any interest at all, I'm tired of being the only one who goes around trying to make this damn celebration the wedding of my dreams, I'm tired of being alone all the evening, and most important of all, I'm tired of being worried that your fucking arse is in danger, shit!! I'm tired!!" and with that she couldn't help the tears that began to fall down her eyes.

Ron felt his heart hurt. He hated when she cried, and the worst thing was that it was almost always his fault. He slowly took her hand, but when she tried to push him away, he used his stronger arms to make her lean with her back against his abdomen, and put one arm around her waist and the other one above her upper chest.

"I'm so sorry, love." He whispered in her ear, kissing her temple while she was still sobbing. He let her cry hard until her sobs became soft hiccups. "I'm sorry, I truly am. I completely forgot about the priest, but please don't think I forgot about you or our wedding. Damn, I'm waiting this moment since we were old enough to do this, do you know how much I'm looking forward to call you as my wife?" she sighed, but didn't say anything. "I want to catch Raven, Hermione. And not only because it's my job and I love it, but mostly because I want to save human lives. I saw what he did, and I don't want to see anything similar at all. I have to stop him, or he'll keep on killing. He may even try and go after you bacuse of your muggle origins, and I can't let this happen, never in my lifetime. Can you understand this?"

She sighed loudly, her breath trembling, and he kissed the crook of her neck and her shoulder. "I feel lonely. And scared." She whispered.

He kept on kissing softly the skin between her neck and shoulder. "Don't be, please, love. Tell me, what would you like me to do?"

She hesitated, then relaxed and let her head lean against his chest. "I just want to be with you. No jobs, no Raven, no danger anymore. Just you and I." She said in a very soft whisper.

He tilted her chin up with a gentle finger and looked directly into her chocolate eyes with his deep blue ones. "I promise I'll catch him in less than three weeks. Than nothing will come between our wedding and us. Just give me three weeks."

She sniffled. "Three weeks to let your sorry arse blow up?"

He grinned. "Or to let my arse become an invincible arse." She smiled a bit and he felt his heart melt; he dried her tears with his thumbs and kissed her forhead. "This is a promise, and I'll never break it."

She nodded slowly. "That's ok with me. I'll try and make our wedding a very good one."

"I'm sure you'll do absolutely great, sweetheart." He said, cupping her cheek in his warm hand. "However, isn't there anymore anything the bad groom could do to help the beautiful bride?" he said.

She though a bit, then smiled shyly. "Well…you could come with me to choose the keepsakes, on Monday afternoon."

"Good. I'll come with you." He winked at her, and she smiled more. 

She shrugged with a sarcastic smile. "The last famous words…"

He took her face in a hand. "Hey, trust me. I'll be there with you, it's a promise."

"Another one. Be careful, Weasley." She added grinning. He grinned back and kissed her slowly and deeply. Sometimes he thought he could keep on kissing her like this for hours. He loved her taste, her rosy lips, her wonderful mouth, her little brave tongue…God, he was so in love with her. She was the best thing that had ever happened to him, and he was going to marry her in less than a month, even if he had to drag that bloody Raven in chains till the aisle with him.

When she broke the kiss, she relaxed against his chest again, closing her eyes. "Ron?"

"Yes?"

"I love you."

He smiled and tightened his grip on her. "I love you too."

The muggle school was completely surrounded by policemen, but none of them was trying to burst in. Ron, Lex, Sean and about fifty aurors arrived there in less than five seconds, and they immediately proceeded to alter their memory and let them out of the situation. Raven and his goons were in that school, holding the pupils and the teachers as hostages. They had to act very carefully, and they couldn't let those muggle men ruin everything. 

"All right, everyone." Ron said, wand in hand. "Stay sharp, be careful. There are children over there."

The group divided into three smaller groups and they carefully went through the school, but every classroom they found was completely empty. They kept on searching, until they arrived on the third floor. There all of them met and found an only door at the end of the corridor. Ron slowly opened it, with his wand held tightly in his hand, but what they saw made their blood freeze.

There were corpses all over the floor: children, men, women…all of them dead. 

"Bloody hell…" Lex whispered, near dropping his wand on the floor. 

"Hey, Ron!" Sean shouted from the outside. Ron, still trying to recover from the shock, reached him out of the room and found a note pinned up by a dagger against the wall.

**Do you like what you see, Weasley?**

Hermione opened her house door and went in, putting immediately the bags on the floor to keep them safe: they were full of frail things, it could be a sorry mess if one of them broke. Then she turned the lights on and found, with a great surprise, Ron sitting on their couch, with a glass of whisky in his hand. He looked like hell, and this worried her a lot.

"Ron!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be still at your work?"

He didn't answer, he just looked up at her eyes, so deep and full of concern for him. She saw him tense and put down her coat. "What happened?" she whispered slowly. She didn't want to push him further, but something had _indeed_ happened.

Without a word, he rose from his seat and took her by her upper arms, and kissed her hard. This was something she didn't expect: his kiss wasn't gentle, deep and passional as always; it was _indeed_ very passional, too passional to be correct. He was litterally devouring her mouth with his hungry and aggressive tongue, he wasn't giving her even the chance to kiss him back: his hands were wandering frantically all over her body, clinging her to himself hard. In less than a minute she was gasping for air and trying desperately to break the kiss.

"Ron…Ron, please…" she murmured against his mouth, but he didn't let go. "…please…I can't…stop…" eventually she managed to push him away. "I said stop!"

He didn't give up anyway and tried to unbutton her shirt frantically. "I want you…I need you right now…"

She put her hands over his, trying to stop him. "Ron…tell me what's wrong, please." She whispered. He tried to kiss her again, still unbottoning her shirt, but she turned her face. "What happened?" she repeated, more determined.

He took a huge breath and finally let go of her shirt, but hugged her with a disperate need and buried his face in the crook of her neck. She held him tight to her, sensing his need, his desperation, his muscular shoulders trembling with something that she couldn't describe just as fear…"Ron…" she tried again.

"All of them." He whispered against her soft skin. "Children, young teachers, all dead." His sentences were inchoerent, and his voice was deeper than usual. "He used the Avada Kedavra on them."

She closed her eyes and hugged him tighter, stroking his nape with her gentle fingers. "I'm so sorry, honey." She whispered gently.

He tightened his grip on her waist and back. "I saw a man when he found out his wife was dead. He was desperate, he was crying, and screaming the hell out, and…"

"Ssh, it's over, it's all over now." She tried to comfort him.

"When I saw this…I thought…I thought…" he was trying to find the words…but maybe he was just trying not to think about what he was telling to her. "…I thought that if it had been _you _that woman on the floor…"

She kissed his cheek. "But I'm here with you, love. And I'm safe and sound because you're with me."

He glanced up at her directly into her eyes, his full of mixed emotions. "I love you so much, do you know this?"

She smiled warmly. "Yeah."

"I want to be with you forever." He whispered with a voice deeper than usual, and with that he kissed her gently. This was how their kisses were meant to be: deep, full of love, explosions of feelings, passional and caring. Their kiss never broke, even when he picked her up and turned to go up in their bedroom.

Well, that's all for chapter 2…did you like it? I hope so.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed my first chap, and keep on doing it, please!

Are there any new characters? Oh yeah, William Breadliffe, Ron's chief…well..he's more like Gabriel Byrne, I think!


	2. It's a promise

Disclaimer: of course, Harry Potter and co. are all property of JK Rowling. Well, this isn't new to all of us, isn't it?

I WANNA CATCH YOU 

She drives me crazy like no one else She drives me crazy, and I can't help myself I can't get any rest 

_People say I'm obsessed_

_Things go wrong, they always do_

                        She drives me crazy, Fine Young Cannibals

*****************

Ron slowly opened his eyes and found himself still in his bed, while outside the sun was shining through the snow fallen on the grass of his garden. He looked down at his chest, and smiled when found Hermione still fast asleep, curled up onto his chest. She was so peaceful when she slept…He loved watching her sleep. Sometimes he looked at her, at his wonderul fiancee, and felt the luckiest man in the world. Since they had finally realized how much they loved each other, his life had become so happy…it seemed almost a dream. And now that they were going to marry, it all seemed a huge, incredible dream. He smiled at his own thoughts and slowly stroked her cheek with his thumb. Hermione snuggled closer to him and, after a few seconds, blinked twice and opened her eyes.

He smiled and kept on stroking her face. "Good Morning, Sunshine."

She returned his smile, with her eyes still sleepy. "Morning, love."

"I hoped you'd be up soon."

She blinked her eyes, now more awake. "And why is this?"

He grinned. "Cause I'd like to resume that talk we had last night…" he said, nuzzling her neck.

She smiled and caressed the unruly hair at the nape of his neck. "We didn't talk very much last night…"

"You can talk, if you want…" he said, kissing her neck and her upper chest. She grinned and licked his ear. "…you know what?" he whispered against her chest.

"What?"

"I'd like very much if you used that wonderful tongue of yours not to talk right now, doctor Granger…"

She giggled and they turned in the sheets until he was on the top of her, still grinning. They kissed passionately for a very long time, none of them able to stop; a few minutes later he tore his mouth away from hers and started kissing her neck again. "Sometimes I think I'm scandalously in love with you…" he whispered with his deep and sexy voice.

She caressed his broad and muscular shoulders with her hands. "I bet you say this to every woman…"

He raised his head and looked at her with an amused expression. "Oh, what a nice thing to say to your almost husband, oh yeah!"

She laughed and kissed his lips. "Redhead means fiery temper, doesn't it?"

He smirked and lowered his head again on her upper chest. "What a bad girl you are, Hermione…I think I'm gonna make you pay for this one…"

She smiled and lifted his head up. "Maybe tonight. Now we have to get ready."

"You're right, I almost forgot about Harry's game."

"I'll met Ginny outside the Leaky Cauldron, then we'll go straight to the stadium. What about you?"

He propped himself up on one elbow, still watching her and stroking her flat stomach with his free hand. "I must to go to work till half past ten. Then I'll join you."

She sulked. "You said you wouldn't go today."

"I know, but yesterday evening there was another attack, and I'm still investigating over it."

Her face fell. "That Raven guy again?"

He nodded seriously. "Yeah."

She sook her head. "I don't quite understand. Why this man is so mean to the Muggles and the Muggleborns? None of us did something to him, I think." She took a deep breath. "He remembers me a lot of Lucius Malfoy."

"With the only difference that Malfoy was a bloody git who talked too much, while this Raven is a devil. And he acts too much, and too damn perfectly to stop him in time." He said with an angry face. "This is impossible. Yesterday his goons killed a young couple of Muggles in the Muggle London."

"Did the Ministry give you guys any more help?"

He shook his head. "Nah, there must be the entire Auror department over this case, but my group is more involved than the other ones."

She caressed his cheek. "I'm sure you'll catch him soon. But please, hurry up. It's so terrible that innocent people have to pay for the madness of this git."

He kissed her hand and smiled at her. "I will."

She nodded and began to rise up. "Now we have to dress up, or we'll both be in a terrible hurry."

He rised too, and found his boxers on the floor. "Ok, but remember that talk we have to resume, ok?"

She grinned. "Oh, don't worry, I won't forget it." She made her way to the bathroom, but gave him a quick kiss on the lips on the way. "Don't be late, Harry's game is at 11.30, understood?"

"Understood." He smiled at her and went to find some clothes.

When Ron arrived at the Auror Headquarters Department there was a crowd of journalists outside the front door, and the Deputy General, Carl O'Toole, was trying his best to make them go away without answering to their questions. Ron quickly went to his room, and found his mates, Sean Hardy and Lex Nilson, who were talking nervously to the mobile while writing furiously something on their notepads.

"Hey, what's up?" he asked, trying to figure out what was indeed happening. 

Lex was the first to put down the mobile. "Ron, where the hell have you been?!"

Ron frowned. "Lex, it's seven in the morning, where do you think I was?"

Sean put his mobile on his desk. "There was another attack last night."

"Raven?" 

He nodded. "That son of a bitch burned a Muggle restaurant full of tourists."

Ron clenched his jaw. "Any survivors?"

Lex looked very pale. "A japanese woman who's still in coma."

"Who's there right now?"

"Dick wanted you to go, but since you weren't here, he sent Roger and Clive."

Ron passed a hand through his hair. "Ok, let's pay a visit anyway. I want to see it."

Lex shook his head another time. "It's all burned up, Ron. If you hope you'll find any evidence that this is another of the Raven's brilliant works, well I have to disappoint you. Clive owled us it's impossible to cooperate with that damn Muggle policemen, or whatever their names are."

"Look, I don't care." Said Ron, more determined. "We'll go there and see. Sean, try to find a connection with the last attacks, let's try to figure if this has a sort of scheme or something."

"I agree. Let's keep our minds and hands occupied if we can do something, anything. I'm really tired of watching innocent people die everyday." Sean seemed very angry. But who couldn't be? This was becoming a sort of obsession for the Aurors, the only common goal was to find that damn Raven and put him in the lowest of the grounds in Azkaban.

"Yesss!!!! Another wonderful goal for the Cannons! Go, guys!!"

The speaker was screaming all over the stadium, inciting the Chudley Cannons against a Polish team, which was already losing for 140 to 100. Harry was doing great, altough the seekers weren't dealing with the Snitch yet, he was showing his best moviments on his broom, in fact the crowd was screaming his name more than ever.

Hermione casted another nervous glance at her watch: 12.05. And Ron wasn't there, yet. 

"Perhaps his boss held him back." Ginny Potter said with a sympathetic smile on her flushed face, while she glanced anxiously at her husband. 

"He didn't wan't to miss Harry's game. Something has happened."

She encircled her friend's shoulders. "Hermione, relax. Ron's ok, he's just been held back because of…well, because of his job, I think! He's one of the best Aurors the Ministry has, I bet he's so taken up."

"Expecially with this Raven thing." Hermione tightened the hold she had on her own scarf.

Ginny nodded. "Yeah, and I feel very protected because of him investigating over this horrible killer. He'll catch him, I'm sure."

Hermione bit her lip. "Me too. But do you know what's to be _always _worried about him outside, playing to the brave guy who wants to take the bad guy to the prison?" she felt a lump in her throat. "I'd like to have him here right now."

"I understand, it's not easy at all for you." And with that, she turned to see Harry diving forward to catch the Golden Snitch. "Last time Harry fought against Voldemort, during your seventh year, it was the hell for me. I'm so grateful he chose to be a professional Quidditch player, instead of keep on putting himself into troubles."

Hermione sighed, still looking at Harry. "Well, Ron wanted to be different from his brothers, you know this better than me. He just wanted to show everyone he can do great if he likes what he does."

Ginny smiled. "Mum would be more pleased if he weren't be in danger everyday."

Hermione snorted. "That's why I love your mother so much."

The two women let themselves smile for a moment, while Harry made a big dive towards the opposite tribune. Then Ginny took her friend's hand. "Please, Hermione, don't worry about him. He's a great guy, he can take care of himself, can't he?"

"Yeah, I hope so." She nodded.

"Think positive. Do you remember that in a bit more than a month you'll be Mrs. Weasley, and my sister-in-law?"

Hermione grinned. "How am I supposed to forget it?"

"Remember we'll have to choose your dress in my friend Mary's shop. I made an appointment on next Tuesday." Ginny said, tucking a lock of her hair behind her ear.

"I'll be there, don't worry." In that very moment, Harry showed his hand up, snitch in it. The speaker thundered the result (290-100 for the Cannons), and everyone stood up clapping their hands, including Ginny and Hermione.

Harry, Hermione and Ginny raised their glasses of butterbeer and drank them happily. They were celebrating Harry's triumph in the Leaky Cauldron, altough Ron hasn't showed up yet at all; so, they went on and began to order their lunch, too hungry to wait for him. 

"My, this is so good!" Harry said, eating his meal. "I like it so much!"

"But Harry," Ginny arched an eyebrow. "Last week I cooked this for you, and you said you didn't like it at all!"

Hermione grinned, and Harry tried his best to smile brightly. "Sweetheart, you burned all of it."

"Oh, shut up!" Ginny finally said. "I'm still learning how to cook. And I'm too busy in the library to practice with my mum."

"This reminds me," Hermione interrupted them. "Ginny, who'll take care of the buffet?"

Ginny smiled. "Dad said he knows the right person."

Harry smirked and shook his head. "Still taking care of the wedding, aren't you?"

Hermione looked amused. "You're his best man, you 're supposed to be the one totally taken up with the groom, if Ron hadn't his head completely buried in his job."

Harry found a bit of sadness in her voice. "Is the bride that eager to marry the groom? My, what a naughty lady you are, Hermione. I thought you two didn't have to wait till the wedding to have a good shag."

Hermione playfully hit his arm. "You're such an insufferable git sometimes, Harry."

He grinned and drank another glass of beer. "Leave that poor bloke alone, luv. Besides, we already bought the rings, so…"

Ginny snapped her head up. "You have the rings?? Ow, show them now!"

Harry laughed. "No way."

"Please!" Hermione was smiling too.

"No, you can't make me show them now. Wait till the wedding, it's in a month."

"Even if you have to sleep on the couch tonight because of this?" Ginny tried, arching an eyebrow at her husband.

He smirked. "This seems better than being punched by Ron if he finds out you know about the rings."

Ginny snorted an picked up her glass. "Such a clichè you are, Harry. Afraid of my big brother." Harry laughed and kissed her temple.

Hermione drank her wine and smiled. "I really hope the press won't show up at the wedding. I bet Ron would flame all of them!"

Ginny shrugged. "Don't worry, they spent all their energies in taking pictures of Harry and I marrying last year."

"Well, I could do better than them." Harry said, grinning. "I could fly all over the quidditch stadium and write with my broom 'famous auror Ron Weasley will marry famous scientist Hermione Granger in less than 30 days', the press would be very grateful." Ginny burst out in a fit of giggles.

"Sure, and I could write 'famous Chudley Cannons' seeker Harry Potter likes sleeping with Mikey Mouse boxers', they could be _very _grateful, don't you think?" Hermione smiled mischievously.

Harry made a face. "Hey, you told her about my boxers?" he said to his wife.

Ginny laughed. "Don't worry,  that will be our secret."

"Yeah, sure, it surely seems so." Harry grunted and drank his beer, while the two women were still giggling. 

In that very moment Ron burst in the Leaky Cauldron, still running, and when he found them he hurried near their table. Hermione looked at him with an unreadable expression, but he focused his attention on Harry, whose eyebrows were arched. 

"Before you start hitting me with your broom, I didn't want to miss the game!" he said, with his hands up. "It was a bloody emergency."

Harry smiled. "It's ok, it wasn't that great of a match, anyway."

Ron sat down near Hermione and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. "Sorry, love. I tried to come in time, but it was impossible."

"What happened?" she asked, while he was filling his glass with the beer.

"Raven again. He burned up a Muggle restaurant."

Ginny sighed. "This is so terrible."

"Do you think you'll be able to catch him soon?" Harry asked, serious.

Ron shook his head. "Honestly, I don't know. We were so close last time, and then he vanished again."

"What does he want, don't you know?" 

Ron snorted. "He just wants to purify the world from the Muggle and the Muggleborns, or whatever he said last time we almost caught him." He said with disgust. "Anyway, I don't want to talk about this right now. How was the game?"

"Quite easy." Harry said with a shrug. "They had good chasers, but a very bad seeker."

Ron smirked. "So, how many matches are left to win the European League?"

"Four. The next one is with the Fouler Rangers."

Ron winked at his best friend. "Ok, we'll be coming home from our honeymoon just for you."

"Such a honor, mate." Harry grinned, and Hermione snuggled closer to her fiance.

"This reminds me…you haven't told me anything about your plans…" she tried, making sweet eyes.

Ron laughed and kissed her lips. "Don't try and corrupt me, honey, this is a surprise, you'll see it. I'm not going to tell you anything, neither is Harry."

Harry nodded. "I've my lips completely sewed."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Men."

Ginny looked suspiciously at her husband. "How comes that you haven't told me anything about this, Harry?"

He smirked. "Cause you'd keep the secret as well as you kept the one about my boxers, love."

Ron arched an eyebrow. "What? What about your boxers?"

By the time Ron came into their bedroom Hermione was already in their bed, still reading a book. He opened the cupboard and started searching for something.

"What are you doing?" she said, marking the page and putting the book on the bedside.

"I'm trying to find the movie of our graduation, you know, that one Colin Creevy took for us."

"Can I ask you why?"

He grinned in the cupboard. "There should be an image of Harry missing one of the steps in Hogwarts' entrance. Ginny wants it to tease him a bit."

She giggled, remembering the scene. "You Weasleys are really incorregible, you know."

"Ah ah!" he said, holding out a muggle videotape. "Here it is!" and smiling he put it on the armchair, near his sweater. He felt her giggle even more. "What's all that about?"

She tried to compose herself. "Unless I'm sorely mistaken, and I don't think I am, you do have the finest butt in all England, my dear fiance."

He grinned and climbed on the bed. "My, my, Miss Granger…you were goggling me, weren't you? What a feisty woman you are…"

She winked at him and put her fingers in his hair. "Turn about is fair play, naughty boy."

He closed his eyes, obviously enjoying her caresses. "I totally agree with you here."

She kept on caressing him and gave him a slow and deep kiss. "I don't want to worry everyday for your life, Ron." She said seriously, and a bit sadly. "I don't want you in this danger. This Raven…"

"You don't have to be afraid, love." He whispered, opening his eyes and looking directly into her brown ones. "I can take care of myself."

"I know this, but still…I was very worried this morning, when you didn't come. I thought…"

He silenced her with a kiss, one of his incredibly long, deep and breath-taking ones. When his mouth left hers, he caressed her cheeks and smiled tenderly at her. "I'm sorry, but this is my job, and I love it."

She looked down. "I know."

He forced her chin up with a gentle finger. "Still, you don't have to be afraid. I'll be careful. But I wanna catch that bloody arsehole. I wanna catch him because I'm really tired of all these prejudices against Muggleborns."

She looked into his eyes, and could immediately understand he was thinking about her too. He had always protected and defended her when someone had called her 'mudblood'. She put her head in the crook of his shoulder and snuggled closer to him, while he passed a strong arm around her waist to feel her closer.

"I'm sure you'll stop him. Just be careful, ok?"

He smiled softly and tightened his grip on her. "Ok." And with this, he kissed her senseless, turning the lights off with a snap of his fingers.

Ok, this is all for chapter one. I hope you like it! I'd like to see some reviews for tonight…please!

Oh, and just a thing: English isn't my mother language at all, I'm trying my best but if there are too many errors let me know! Ok?

A little note: you know, when I write a fanfiction, I try to imagine my characters' faces. Do you want to know how I see them? Well, here it is a list:

Ron: absolutely Paul Walker in Fast and Furious

Hermione: exactly like Kate Beckinsale in Serendipity

Harry: so Ben Affleck in Armageddon

Ginny: she's so Claire Danes with red long hair

Lex Nilson: mm…Ewan McGregor in Trainspotting

Sean Hardy: totally Adam Sandler!

Here, now you can figure how I see them. See you! ^^

Sunshine


	3. Finally

Disclaimers: as always, JK Rowling owns Harry Potter and his friends, I just wrote down this story and the new characters.

FINALLY And through it all she offers me protection 

_A lot of love and affection wether I'm right or wrong_

_And down the waterfall wherever it may take me_

_I know that life won't break me when I come to call_

_She won't forsake me…I'm lovin' angels instead_

                                    Angels, Robbie Williams

***************

It was still about eight in the morning when Ron and Lex made their way to their chief William's office. He was in his room, talking animately to someone at the telephone, sitting in his chair with a big frown on his face. He motioned them to sit, but didn't stop talking until a few minutes later, when he almost hung on the call. His cheeks were still flushed from the near yelling.

"Whoa, take it easy, boss!" Lex said with a smirk.

"Nilson, smirk again within two seconds and I'll give you to the Dementors straight away." He snapped bitterly.

"Any pressures from the Ministry?" Ron asked.

"All right, listen to me, you two: I'm fucking tired of being Fudge's remedy against his third-age crisis, ok? So I give you less than 24 hours to find that damn Raven, or I'll…"

"We're here just to show you something." Lex interrupted his chief's yelling.

"And what should it be, another of the holes in the water from your collection?" 

Ron tried to ignore the man's anger and frustration. "It's a trap."

"What?!"

"A trap."

"To catch Raven?"

"Yeah."

William snorted. "It's the same Raven we're talking about? The same devil?"

"Yeah, the same filthy bastard, I think." Lex said. "We've quite an idea."

William seemed to calm down a bit. "Explain yourselves."

"Ok, the idea is this one," Ron started. "we'll fake a sort of big party in a muggle disco, you know, a huge party. There will be no muggles at all, but only aurors. We'll make our faces change with some of the new glamours they brought up last week, and we'll try to seem very famous muggle stars, so it may seem our deaths could affect very much the muggle London, and the rest of the world."

"And when Raven will show up, we'll be there greeting him." Lex finished with an excited grin on his face.

"Well?" Ron said tentatively, because William wasn't talking yet.

"This is the strangest, the most absurd, the most crazy and the bravest plan I've ever heard of." He said slowly, ending up with a grin.

Ron gave a triumphant smirk. "So you're ok if we do this tomorrow evening?"

"Give me just a second to call that bloody Fudge and tell him we need more support." He said with an excited smile.

"Good." Lex was very anxious to do this.

"We'll catch him tomorrow, period." Ron whispered, very determined. _I have to keep my promise, Hermione._

To Harry, Ginny seemed more excited than ever; he wondered if she was _that _anxious when she had bought her wedding dress. He was sitting on a couch in a boutique called 'God bless the bride', waiting for Hermione to come out that damn changing room, and Ginny was taking her a dress after another. It was becoming quite boring, after half an hour; he had agreed to go with them not only because he was Ron's best man, but also because Hermione was his best friend in the world. But he couldn't imagine those two women would take so much time to choose a single dress!

"Hermione?" he tried, still from the couch. 

Ginny's head snapped out of the curtain. "Yes?"

"Is it supposed to take _this_ long?" 

Ginny arched both her eyebrows. "Harry, this is her _wedding _dress we're tryin' to choose! Pictures and photos of that day will be all over desks and drawers in their home, she _has_ to choose the best one, cause she _is supposed_ to look totally perfect! Understood?!" 

He held up his hands defensless. "Ok, ok… take your time, and forgive me."

"Good." Ginny nodded, and closed the curtain again.

_Bless Ron who didn't come, _Harry thought with a slight frown. He's given up an afternoon of training to help them, and here he was, sitting on a couch with his hands full of magazines and photos of wedding dresses. This was becoming quite boring! He thought about going away for a walk for a minute or two, but just when he was about to rise from his seat, the curtain opened and Ginny came out with a huge smile on her face.

"There she is!! She's wonderful!"

And Harry couldn't help but agree with his wife. Hermione was dressed up in a simple yet very nice white dress, with a tight bodice who relieved her beautiful breast and flat stomach, and a quite long gown who made her look taller. He looked at her with his mouth half-opened, and she smiled shyly.

"God, Hermione…you look stunning!"

"Thank you." She said, still glancing at her dress.

"This is the perfect one, it seems made up for you!" Ginny exclaimed, eyes glittering with emotion.

"Don't you think the bodice is a bit too tight?" she asked tentatively.

"Don't you dare, that will indeed be Ron's favourite part of the dress!" he grinned. Both the women looked at him with arched eyebrows and hands on their waist. "Hey, what's up with you? You brought me here because you needed a male's opinion, didn't you? It's not my fault she has _that _hell of a sexy body, and it isn't my fault too if Ron happens to like very much all those tempting curves she has, so?"

Ginny looked at Hermione with a thoughtful expression. "You know, for once I have to agree with that Neanderthal husband of mine. You look damn good in that tight dress."

"You know what?" Hermione said after awhile. "I think I'll buy this."

"Very good taste, young lady." Harry said with a goofy grin. "And I'm looking forward Ron's thank you for advising his woman to buy that thing."

Hermione smiled. "I can imagine how the two of you will end up."

"Both completely drunk, singing in the Leaky Cauldron, until a random journalist doesn't catch them talking about their sexy and beautiful wives, and then there is the fun." Ginny said with a sardonic smile.

"Yeah, on the third page of the Daily Prophet." Hermione nodded. "'Harry Potter and his friend Ron Weasley caught up drunk as mad, talking about their sex lives', or whatever they wrote."

"Hey, it was that bloody Colin Creevy who was taking the pictures secretly, we were just…raising our elbows a bit too much, that's all." He said.

"Don't swear." Ginny said, and then smiled. "And beside, you two were almost cute with your hair completely wet from the beer."

He couldn't help but smirk at the memory. "It wasn't my idea, anyway."

Hermione shrugged, still grinning, and snapped her attention back to the mirror. "Ok, Ginny please, tell your friend we're taking this." Ginny nodded and she went to the changing room again.

"Gin, how comes that your wedding dress wasn't so…so…"

"So tempting and sexy?"

"Sort of."

"I bet it wasn't. Grandma choose it."

Harry grinned at her. "It suited you perfectly, anyway."

"You were awesome too, great seeker."

Harry's grin widened. "Let's put it up tonight after dinner, and I'll make you see my point."

The place the aurors used to prepare the trap was now full of men and women who were dancing and drinking; all of them were aurors, and each one had a glamour which made their face different and similar to a muggle vip or somenthing. Ron was at the bar, drinking his analcholic drink; he was very tense, like everyone was: the plan had to succeed, this time they _absolutely _had to catch Raven. Ron casted a nervous glance at his watch: 22.30. Lex, who was dancing with a fake Julia Roberts, seemed tense too. There was a very anxious atmosphere, and they could sense it; it was this way until 23.10, then something finally happened.

Someone climbed on the stage they were using to sing and do karaoke, and took the microphone from the man who was singing at that moment. It was an aged man, surely on his sixties, with a diabolic smirk on his face and a pair of freezing eyes. Ron could know who he was in that very second, and immediately felt his hand tighten around his wand, which was in his pocket.

"All right, ladies and gentlemen," the man said with an icy voice. "I think the party is over now, there will be another great party, but unfortunately you filthy muggles aren't supposed to be invited at all." It was clear he was enjoying this immensely, and Ron felt a wave of anger in his heart, thinking about all the times he had done this to poor and innocent people.

In a minute the hall was full of Raven's goons, who held their wand against the crowd of men and women. "I'm very sorry to interrupt such a nice party, but now the show is over, so, if you don't mind, I think we can go on and close the curtains." Raven said with his smirk even wider.

"I agree. Let's put the word END to all this."

The voice made Raven turn around immediately, and he found himself face to face with Ron Weasley, with his wand pointed directly at his chest. A second later all the fake muggles broke their glamours and grabbed their wands, pointing it against the astonished attackers.

"Ron Weasley." Raven sneered. "Such a pleasure to meet you again."

"Such a pleasure to put you in Azkaban till the end of your days." Ron retorted, still holding tight his wand. "I think you should drop the wands, or this piece of shit will go to Azkaban by instalments." He hissed to the attackers. They hesitated just a moment, then gave up and let their wands down. Without esitation, the aurors began to tie and handcuff all of them.

Ron and Raven still didn't make a move, but Ron's eyes were burning with fury; altough the situation was very bad, Raven seemed to keep his composture quite good.

"You do think this is over." He hissed slowly, and very threatingly.

"This _is _over." Ron snarled. "This ends up with you in Azkaban, ready to suffer the Dementors' kiss." His voice was as cold as ice. "I promised you'd pay for all the pain you've caused."

Raven shook his head, and smirked. "You poor foolish guy…I think I can give you this one. It's ok with me, take me up to the prison. This should be sufficent for you to have a promotion, shouldn't it? Then go on and handcuff me, if you want."

His horrible voice, and his annoying calm made Ron even more furious. "Go to the hell, Raven! _Stupefy!_" and with that Raven's body fell down to the ground.

Hermione hurried towards her fiance's room: through the corridors there were aurors and people from the Ministry coming in and out frantically, and there was a very satisfied and proud atmosphere all over; she smiled when she reached Ron's office: he was talking with his mates, Lex and Sean, and three men came out from his room with many documents signed in their hands. When he saw her coming, his face lighted up.

"Hey," he said with a tired smile, and kissed her lightly on the lips.

"I heard about the great news." She said with a proud smile. "Congratulations, sweetheart."

"Hey, I was there as well, don't you think you should give me the same greetings?" Lex said, grinning at her.

"Don't you dare, Nilson." Ron grinned back.

"My, the Weasley's threatening glare, I'm quaking." He winked at them.

"You've kept your promise,." She whispered to him, still smiling. "You're the best, love."

"Sure, and you are supposed to give me a prize for this…" he said grinning mischievously. They heard Lex sing all over 'my baby does the hanky-panky', and while Hermione blushed lightly, Ron laughed.

"So, are you convinced it's all over now?" Sean asked.

"Aren't you?" Hermione arched an eyebrow.

"I don't know…there's something, I think…maybe cause it was too easy…" his hand went on the hair on the nape of his neck. "…probably it's just a sensation, I dunno…"

"You're overreacting, that's all." Sean seemed very happy. "It was our trap that was great."

"I hope you're right." Ron said, not so convinced at all.

Hermione peered into his deep blue eyes, and saw concern. "What's your problem, Ron? You have finally caught him, now you can concentrate on our wedding."

"And this is the hard part." Lex whispered with a sing-song voice, and the other two men couldn't help but grin.

In that particular moment a woman came in the room; Hermione's eyes widened at the sight: she seemed a real _tart_ or something very similar to a bitch! She had long brown hair, very fleshy and red lips, a pair of big breasts and butt, and very long legs, and she was wearing an atrocius tight shirt, whose buttons seemed near exploding, and a very very short skirt. She came in with a luscious smile, wiggling her hips.

"Evening, bunch of heroes." And her voice was damn sexy too! 

Lex smiled. "Here's our heaven."

Sean wrapped an arm around her waist. "How are you, beautiful?"

"Very well, thanks, now that I'm with you guys." She said with a wink at Ron.

Hermione was fuming, and Ron could see this. "Er…Renee, this is my fiancee, Hermione. Sweetheart, this is our secretary, Renee."

The tart reached for her and extended her hand. "My, the famous Hermione…Ron always talks about you."

Hermione tried her best to fake a smile, and held her gaze while shaking her hand. "Funny, I didn't even know he has a secretary."

"Oh, I think I can understand why he didn't say anything." Renee said with a michievous grin to Ron. Lex coughed to hide a laugh.

Ron saw his fiancee's eyes burning and decided to prevent something very huge. "And you're here for?"

Renee held him a paper. "William wants you to sign this."

Ron scanned the paper quickly and nodded, then signed it and held it out to her. "Thanks a lot."

She smirked. "See you later, guys. Bye, Hermione." And with wggling her hips again, she left.

Hermione took her coat from the chair and started to put it on in a way Ron knew was nervous. "Are you already leaving? I thought we could have lunch together."

"Obviously you have your _work,_ I don't want to hamper you." She said bitterly, without looking up at him, still buttoning her coat. "See you tonight, Ron." She went to reach for the door, but he held her back.

"Can we talk a minute?" he said demanding.

Lex arched his eyebrows and put down the papers he had in his hand. "Come on, Sean, I think mummy and daddy want a bit of privacy." Sean smirked too, and they went out of the room, closing the door.

Hermione crossed her hands over her chest and leaned against the desk. "Why haven't you told me you have Jessica Rabbit as your secretary?" she said with a frown.

He couldn't help but laugh. "What? Jessica…"

"What's so funny?!" she snapped, interrupting him. "You spend almost 8 hours here, and now I know you spend all this time with that…that squalid piece of meat…that…"

"Honey, please…" he tried.

"Don't _honey _me, Ron Weasley! How comes you didn't tell me about your bitch?"

"This isn't _my_ bitch at all, Hermione!" he finally managed to say. "And I see her once, twice a day!"

"She seems very at ease with you, to me."

"Yeah, because as you eloquently put it, she's a tart."

She snorted ironically. "My almost husband works eight hours a day in the same office with a tart. Now I'm very happy and confident, yeah."

"Oh, please Hermione." He then arched both eyebrows and grinned. "Wait a minute…you know, I like when you're jelous of me."

She turned to him to slap him, but when she raised her hand he took a grip on both her wrists and pushed his lips on hers hungrily. She tried to fight him off for a second, then he felt her relax and gave in the kiss. When his mouth left hers, she had her eyes half-opened and her breath was a bit erratic.

He smiled at her. "You see, love, she may have all curves at right spots, but she doesn't make my mouth water like you do." 

She opened her eyes and looked at him, shyness in her eyes. "Do…do you think I'm nice?"

She was so tender in her shyness, and he loved her so much for this. "You're beautiful, honey. You're the most beautiful and brilliant witch I've ever met." He said with a smile, stroking her cheek with his thumb.

She smiled happily, and he knew their fight was over. "It's not that I don't trust in you. I'm not trust in _her_."

He grinned. "This is because you know how manly and sexy I am."

She hit playfully the back of his head. "Don't be so sure of yourself, Mr. Fascination."

He grinned and whispered huskily in her ear. "Let's wait tonight, then you'll tell me if you don't like my Fascination grown-up version." And just the sound of his tone made her legs melt.

She nuzzled his neck. "You know…I was almost hoping for a quickie in your office…"she whispered, bucking her hips against his. 

He groaned, and kissed her neck. "My, how can I say no to you…"

In that very moment the door bursted open and Sean came in. "Sorry to interrupt, but we need you right now, Ron."

Ron snorted, and Hermione let go of him, taking her bag. "Don't worry, I'll be waiting at home."

He smiled and kissed her. "Be a good girl."

She smiled too. "Yes, daddy." And with a final wave and a polite goodbye to Sean, she was gone. Ron still looked in her direction with a goofy grin.

"Now I know how much that woman is hot, but Weasley, I need you with feet over there with me, ok?"

Ron glanced at Sean. "I hope you have a very good reason to stop me from shagging that woman right here, you know." He said leaning against his desk.

"It's a bloody good reason, mate." He said seriously. "Did you know Raven has a son?"

Ron frowned. "What?"

"Yeah, we've just found out. His name's Jeremy, he's almost 30 and guess what, he's his daddy's second."

The words sank in Ron's head like a terrible gong. "And where's this bastard right now?"

"Dunno, but I think there's a good 99% he's working to take his revenge."

Hermione was still cooking dinner when she heard Ron coming home. He put down his bomber jacket and came into the kitchen, where he found her near the stoves. He smiled and put his arms around her waist from behind.

"Hey." He said with his sexy voice, kissing a particulary sensitive spot on her neck.

She smiled at the stoves. "Hey."

"It's been a very long day…" 

"But a very useful one." She couldn't help but feeling turned on with every slow french kiss he gave to her neck. "Missed me?"

"Don't ask me how much." He said with his deep voice, and she turned around to look at him.

"Me too." She whispered before raising on her tip toes and kissing him. The kiss became soon frantic and very hungry, and he held her closer to him while she put both her arms around his neck. His hands couldn't help but wandering along her back, and then he felt the strong wish to feel her skin under them; when she felt his warm hands caressing so possessively her back, from her butt to the lace of her bra, she definitely felt turned on. Her hands found the hem of his jumper and began to rise it up; without pulling away from their kiss, he unzipped her sweatshirt and let it fall down on the ground. She managed to break the kiss just to pull away his jumper, and then he grabbed her waist and put her down on the nearest table; their mouths immediately locked again, with a more developed passion and hunger, and she could feel now his erection against her inner leg, still with his trousers on, and this made her groan in his mouth and buck her hips against his. Her hands were wandering possessively and hungrily on his muscular chest and his broad shoulders, while their kiss became full of an explosive passion; it was just a matter of time until she felt her bra falling down her shoulders, and a minute later his warm and big hands were molding her breasts. She arched her body against his and let her hands travel down along the buttons of his jeans. His mouth left hers only to leave a very long and electric series of kisses along her jawline, behind her ear, down her neck and upper chest, until he found her breast: she arched her body and he grinned a bit against her nipple, just a second before licking it; she moaned and tightened her grip on his shoulders when he began to tease her, licking and twirling her nipples between his expert fingers, and the emotions were almost too much to handle. She moaned and slowly unbuttoned his jeans, letting them fall down his legs. He got out of them with a swift motion, and, never breaking the contact between his mouth and her breasts, he let her free of her sweatpants soon. He sucked in a very deep breath when her hands found their way on his rock-hard shaft, and when they began their slowly stroking and teasing him, he found himself unable to breath against her chest. She couldn't even understand how much this was turning both of them on: they were moaning each other names and their desire was growing deeper and deeper; then he raised his mouth and savagely kissed her, and she purred against him when he pushed her knickers down with a hungry hand; a second later she arched herself against his chest, and had to breake the kiss to let out a little scream, cause his finger was inside of her, and was going in and out, in and out, in and out, pushing her over the edge. He felt her tense and near her climax but didn't let her take a breath, and his tongue was in her mouth once again. 

She managed to push him gently away, and he looked at her for a moment: flushed, panting, with her chocolate eyes full of desire, her long hair down her shoulders and her wonderful body shaking all over from the pleasure, her legs parted just for him, her need to feel him. This was fuel for his arousal, and then she looked at him in the eyes and put her hands through his unruly hair. "Ron…please…" she whispered.

This was too much for his self-control, and in a swift motion he held her tight to him and plunged deep inside of her. She let out a strangled moan and her nails were in his shoulders, while her mouth found his again. His thrusts were deep and powerful, there was no time for long and teasing sex, there was only a desire too deep to handle, even for a minute more or two. Soon his thrusts were frantic and forceful even more, and when one of his hands squeezed her breast while his fingers pinched her nipple, she tore her mouth from his to cry out loud her pleasure. Feeling her climax he couldn't hold back anymore and with a final strong thrust he came into her.

They remained there for a bunch of minutes, trying to let their hearts slow down, her head and upper body leaned against his chest, and none of them could tell where her skin finished and his began, cause they were too close to see this. He stroked the soft skin of her back while his other hand was interwined between her curls.

"Have I ever told you how beautiful you are?" he whispered, with his breath still ragged a bit.

She smiled against his chest and slowly caressed his shoulders and back. "So are you."

He looked directly into her eyes. "But you're the cutest one." And with that he kissed her again, with all his love and affection and passion, and soon both of them found themselves needing another round of this, still to concentrated on each other to see a pair of sharp eyes looking intently at them from the outside.

Yup, it's all for chap 3…a bit of cliffie, yeah!

I really hope you'll review, reviews make an author's day, don't you know?

Merry Xmas, and…till next chap!

Sunshine

Oh, and the characters: bad, bad Dwight Raven is completely and absolutely Jack Nicholson!

What about Renee? Mm…Angelina Jolie, I think. ^^


	4. Playing dirty

Disclaimer: as always, all this Potter stuff is JK Rowling's. Ok now?

PLAYING DIRTY 

Bye bye love, bye bye happiness 

_Hello loneliness, I think I'm gonna cry_

_Bye bye love, bye bye sweet caress_

_Hello emptiness, I feel like I could die_

                                                                                 Bye bye love, Everly Brothers

***************

**6:15 a.m.**

There were so many things Ron loved about Hermione, but watching her asleep was at the top of the list. It was very early in the morning, and she was curled up on his chest, her head across his shoulder and one arm lazily sprawled on his waist, her soft skin massaging his with every soft breath she took. She was so peaceful in her deep sleep, and seemed so safe and sound within his arms…he wished he could hold her like this forever. With her wonderful and brilliant personality she made him forget all the bad things he had to deal with. Sometimes he looked at her and thought about all those ages of platonic friendship…God, he was daft _and _stupid? She had been a costant in his life, and soon he had found he couldn't bear if she wasn't with him forever and beyond. And now she was about to become his wife…his and nobody else's woman. This was how things were supposed to go, and he couldn't help but smile thinking about their first encounter: he had wished with all his heart not to be sorted in the same house of that little know-it-all, and now he couldn't imagine his home without her even for two minutes. Life can be so absurd sometimes.

She stirred and blinked twice, then raised her head and saw him. "Hi." She whispered with a sleepy smile.

He smiled too. "Morning, princess." She kissed his cheek and yawned, making little purring sounds which made him warm all over. "You look more beautiful than ever this morning, you know."

She smiled and kissed his lips. "Thanks."

He returned her kiss, putting an arm around her waist and letting his tongue make its way in her mouth. They stood there kissing for what seemed an eternity, eventually his mouth left hers and she smiled happily down to him, not sleepy anymore, with her fawn eyes happy and warm. 

"What time is it?"

"Mm…half past six, I think." 

Her eyes widened. "I have to get ready in less than ten minutes!" she jumped from the bed and began to look for  proper clothes in the cupboard.

He smiled genuinely seeing her so busy. "Why all this hurry, luv?"

"I've got a press conference to talk about my last research." She said, managing to put on long skirt.

He got up, putting on his boxers. "I'd like to come and listen to you." He whispered, and then neared her, who was still buttoning her blouse. "You know, you're very, very sexy when you talk into a microphone…"

She grinned and kissed him. "Am I?"

"You don't know how much I felt aroused last time I came to a conference of yours." He grinned back. "I was holding back myself, but I wanted so much to pin you down on that desk and have my way with you."

She raised her eyebrows, still smiling. "My, I fell in love with a naughty animal."

He smirked and kissed her. "And this is one of the reasons you love me so much."

She laughed and finished dressing, then she went into the bathroom while he put on his jeans. She came out in a few minutes, with a very professional attitude. He grinned and bit down his lip, arching his eyebrows. "Oh, baby." He said with his Clark Gable voice, which she found simply irresistible. 

She grinned back and picked up her bag. "Remember you promised to meet me in Diagon Alley at 13.00, we have to choose the keepsakes."

He nodded. "Don't worry, I'll be there."

"Let's hope." She said shrugging, and picking up her coat. "Look, I really care about this."

"Me too." He said, hugging her.

She kissed him on the lips and made her way to the door, then stopped. "Ron?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

He grinned. "Me too, baby."

She smiled and went out the door.

**10:30 a.m.**

"Look who's there." Said Lex with a grin when Ron came in his room. "I thought you were busy with your wedding plannings."

"Nothing till 13.00." he said, taking his seat behind his desk. At that moment Sean came in with his arms full of papers and folders. "What's all this?"

"You told me to find something about Raven's son, here it is." He said, putting the folders on the desk with a thud.

"Whoa, the guy is better than his father, it seems." Lex snorted.

Ron picked up some papers and started reading them aloud with a frown. "Jeremy Raven, male, 30, Dwight Raven's son, his second in command. He's ambitious, very clever and cruel. He took part in the most horrible attacks to the muggles, but he never showed up clearly, so he can't be officially charged because of the lack of prooves." 

Sean nodded. "Well, nice to meet him. This bloody git seems more dangerous than his own father."

"Perhaps he's even ok with his father in Azkaban, so he can be considered as the number one in that damn organization of theirs." Lex tried.

Ron shook his head. "No, I don't think so. This guy is trying to make a point, which is his great ability. He wants his father and everone to recognize his great way of committing crimsons without being discovered. So what would be better than rescue daddy without even risking his clever arse?"

Sean frowned. "If this is true, ther's more danger now than before we caught Raven senior."

Ron nodded. "We have to find this fucking Jeremy before he tries anything."

"Can I ask you how, since this git is playing to the Invisible Man since he was born?" Lex asked. "We haven't a single cue to find him."

"I know, still we have to." Ron seemed very worried. "Let's begin this way: I'll go to talk to William, we'll ask to have a look in the Ministry official archive. Sean, you'll have to find any single name we have of Raven's organization, I want every name, even the name of the boy who takes them the coffee. Lex, call all our informers and try to see if any of them knows something. This _must_ be done before 13.00, or I'm a dead man."

They smirked a bit and nodded. "Let's find the Bad Boy, boss."

 **13:30 p.m.**

Hermione glanced at her watch and tapped her foot on the ground nervously. Ron couldn't be in a hurry even that afternoon, not with Raven in Azkaban and their appointment to look for the keepsakes, he simply couldn't. This time he knew she couldn't give him any excuse.He just couldn't miss this too: she was arranging their wedding all alone with Ginny's help, and she wasn't supposed to do all this without his help. After all, he was the groom: true, she had given him some more extra-time to catch that Raven, but now that it was all over if he missed another of their appointments, it could only mean he wasn't interested at all in their ceremony, and this was very sad. She dreamed about that day since she was a child, he couldn't be so lazy and busy with his job to forget she was looking forward it. This would mean he was an insensible git, and she really hoped he wasn't. At last, his best friend Ron was all but insensible. And sometimes she missed the caring best friend he once was: now, so busy with his work and all, she felt lonely…she would have loved sitting with him and talking about their wedding, their fears, their wonderful love…but he was never at home with her lately, not to mention he worked in the same office with a real bitch…

Hermione shook her head. No, Ron was on his way to come, he would never do that to her. He promised, and he had her total confidence. All she had to do was to wait a little more.

**13:42 p.m.**

Ron bursted in his room once again and Sean raised his head from the papers he was reading. "So?"

Sean shook his head. "Just a pair of names. There's a certain Kevin Lucas, who seems a sort of phantom help, so I told Lex to find more about him, and our old friend Daniel Pennyworth, but he doesn't seems so covered up to me."

Ron nodded. "Keep on finding about that Lucas boy."

Sean frowned a bit. "Ron, what are you doing here? I thought you had to meet Hermione."

Ron's eyes widened. "What?" frantically he looked at his watch and his eyes widened more. "Holy shit!!!" and without even another glance, he run out of the room, leaving Sean with an amused expression on his face.

**13:55 p.m.**

Hermione slammed shut the door of her flat and went straight to her bedroom; there she undressed and put on a pair of jeans and a jumper, her movements frantic and nervous. She felt a strong need to cry, but refused to let the tears come down her cheeks: she felt betrayed. Yes, betrayed. She had told him how much she needed his collaboration in all this wedding thing, yet he didn't care a bit, even now that everything was ok. This was so cruel of him…she wanted him, needed him, he was _supposed_ to be there with her, but he wasn't, and it seemed he didn't want to be. And this was very painful for her.

Suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder, and a wave of rage exploded in her heart. "Don't you dare, don't say you're sorry cause this time I won't accept it." She hissed bitterly.

"I won't."

Hermione turned around immediately: this wasn't Ron's voice, and the man who was standing right in front of her wasn't him. He was tall and with black hair and eyes, with a strange darkness in his eyes and a smirk on his face which she didn't like at all.

"Who are you?" she asked, her hand searching her wand. "How did you come in?"

He smirked. "Looking for this?" he sneered, holding up her wand in his hand. She felt panic, but tried not to show this. He saw her tense up and smirked even more. "Hermione Granger, aren't you?"

She bit her lip and took a step behind. "Who the hell are you?"

"Let's say I'm here expecially for you." He said teasingly, putting her wand in the pocket of his jacket. "My name's Jeremy, nice to meet you."

She was beginning to feel very scared. She was alone, and this man's behaviour seemed all but normal. She tried to make her voice as neutral as she could. "What do you want?"

He stepped closer. "My, I thought you were nicer, Hermione…I'm your guest, after all."

"I don't think I've ever invited you to my home, and I'd like to know what are you doing here and how do you know me." She managed to spat out with a brave voice.

He stepped closer and looked into her eyes. "What an interesting woman you are, Miss Granger…" he whispered huskily, and she immediately backed away from him. It was impossible for her to escape: he was pinning her against the wall, she could only try to kick him and then run as fast as she could, but he seemed reading her mind, cause he took out his wand and pointed it directly to her chest. "Let's put things in this way: I'm here to pick you, so if you play nice and do as I say, there won't be any damages."

She swallowed hard and tried to be careful to his movements. "I'm not going anywere." She said sharply.

He smirked. "Very interesting and brave person you are, my lady, but a bit too presumptuous. Altough I like presumptuous women, I like breaking them."

Ok, now she was _definitely_ scared. Yet, she imposed herself not to show this. "Stay away from me." She hissed bravely.

He laughed cruelly, then looked at her and shouted "Stupefy!". Hermione's limp body fell down on the ground. He smirked again and put his wand in his jacket. Then he picked her unconscious body up and with a last grin he apparated away.

**14:30 p.m.**

Harry and the Chudley Cannons seeker reserve were going after the very fast snitch, while their chaser and captain Roger was giving them advices; this was normal routine for the training, altough Harry liked the most when they had training matches with other teams. In a matter of minutes he caught the snitch.

"Walts, this isn't a nice walk in your garden, you have to go faster if you want to catch that damn thing!" Roger shouted from his broom.

One of the Cannons' beaters, Micheal, reached for Harry with his broom. "Hey Harry, there's a friend of yours over there, he says he wants to talk to you right now."

Harry looked down and saw Ron. "Thanks, Mike." He dived down his broom and reached the ground within two seconds. "Hey, what are you doing here?" he asked.

Ron seemed very nervous. "Is Hermione here?"

Harry frowned. "No, of course she isn't. Why?"

Ron made a face. "I had to meet her at 13.00, but I…well, I went there just two minutes ago, and obviously she wasn't there anymore."

Harry crossed his arms. "Not to lecture you, mate, but this is what, the twentieth time she gives you an appointment and you miss it?"

"Please, spare me the lecture." Ron interrupted him sharply. "Ginny already told me this. Now I just want to find Hermione."

Harry shhok his head. "She didn't came to me. Have you tried with Ginny?"

Ron nodded, while passing his head through his hair. "Yeah, she told me to come here and try with you."

Harry could sense his concern and worry. "Look, I'm sure she's fuming right now, but eventually it'll be okay, it always is."

"I'd like to hear her saying this first." He said tense. "I'll try to go home and wait till she comes back. Perhaps it's better to give her some space to calm down a bit."

Harry nodded. "I agree. Hey, let me know when she comes back and you two stop arguing, ok?"

"Yeah." Ron seemed not so confident. "I just hope she'll want to talk with me."

**15:40 p.m.**

When Ron came back home he truly hoped Hermione would already be there, but she wasn't. He sighed and went in their bedroom: on the bed there were the skirt and the blouse she had worn in the morning, so she had been there. He went downstairs again and looked for her in the kitchen and in the bathroom, but she wasn't there. He let out an exasperated sigh.

"Looking for your woman, I assume."

Ron turned sharply, wand in hand: there was a man in his sitting room, a dark one to be honest. His face was totally new to him, but something told him he already knew that guy.

"My, Auror reflexes, what a good thing." The guy kept on talking in a mischievous voice.

"Who are you?" Ron hissed.

"I'm sure you know me, altough we haven't been properly introduced yet." The guy sneered. "But I'm sure you know very well my father, in fact you were so brilliant to put him in prison. You do have my congratulations. Bloody idiot my father is, isn't he?"

Ron tightened his grip on the wand. "Raven junior." He whispered with a very low voice.

He smirked. "I'd like more if you call me Jeremy."

"Whatever is your name, what the fuck are you doing here?" 

"I'm…having a chat with my favourite auror. Cause you know, I like you more than all your stupid friends at the Ministry." Jeremy said, still smirking. "They're so bloody annoying, on the contrary you're sharp and quite clever. It's rather funny palying to the cat and mouse with you."

"I'm flattered." Ron was starting to feel nervous. This git's presence in his home was too dangerous. "But despite your greetings, I have to ask you again. What. The. Fuck. Are. You doing. Here."

Jeremy smiled and sat on the couch. "I think you should sit down a bit. This if you want your precious fiancee alive."

Ron felt his blood freeze in his veins. "What?"

The man looked at him with an amused look. "Yes, you didn't misunderstand me. I have your beautiful girlfriend. She's fine, don't worry."

"You filthy liar." Ron voice could break a block of marble.

Jeremy kept his composture. "If you don't believe me, then you should take a look at this." 

He gave him a little circle mirror which Ron immediately recognized as the Mirror of the Wish. It could show up anything and anyone, if it was ordered to. With a shaky hand, he took it and said "Show me Hermione Granger." A second later appeared an image of an unconscious Hermione on a dark ground, in a room with stone walls. Ron felt his rage stronger and more furious than ever, and his eyes were burning when he looked at Raven. "If you lay just one of your dirty fingers on her, just one, I swear I'll ripp your bloody head from your body before you can even blink twice." He hissed between his clenched teeth.

Jeremy didn't seem that surprised. "I don't intend to harm her…if you collaborate." He said with a calm voice, then he looked directly into his furious blue eyes. "You do as I tell you, and she'll be all right. You disobey me, she'll be dead."

Ron swallowed hard, trying not to hex him right there and then. "What do you want from me?"

"Well, let's start with you dropping your wand, for once." Ron hesitated just a second, then let his wand fall down on the ground. "Good. Look, I'm a buisness man. You have my father, I have your woman. I think an exchange should be very appropriate, don't you think?"

Ron's fists were curled up in two tight balls. "I can't give you your damn father even if I wanted. He's in Azkaban right now, and there are eight dementors out of his cell. Do you think the Ministry would let me go there and then come back with a serial killer just for my charming smile?"

Jeremy shrugged. "I'm sure you'll find a way."

"There's _no_ way." Ron's voice was strong and hateful.

"I don't think so. Cause this would mean there's no way your girl will come out alive from where she is." 

Ron launched towards him. "You filthy son of a bitch!!"

"Touch me and she'll die!" Ron had to stop himself, and reclutantly let go of him. Jeremy stood up and straightened his clothes. "Now listen, your woman is a mudblood, she's nothing to me, I don't care a bit about her, dead or alive. So if you want her heart still beating, then you'll better calm down and listen very carefully to me."

Ron's heart was pounding in his chest. "If you hurt her…"

"I won't touch her if you do what I want."

Ron tightened his fists. "Fine. I'll try and find a way to get your fucking father out of prison. But I need three, four days at last."

Jeremy shrugged. "Four days, nothing less, nothing more. After all, it's in your girlfriend's interest if you hurry up." He sneered. "Remember, I have my informers as well, so don't try to tell a soul about this, or you know what will happen."

He slowly nodded. "How can I find you?"

"I'll find you in four days, when I hope you'll be ready."

"I'm warning you, the moment you hurt her I'll kill your father." Ron's tone was brave and threatingly.

Jeremy smirked. "See you soon, Weasley." And with that he apparated away. 

Ron felt pain all over him, from his heart to his soul and mind. He couldn't think straight, he couldn't do anything but see in his eyes Hermione unconscious in that damn cell. A wave of pain, rage and fear rushed over his mind, and he punched the wall with all his strenght and despair.

**22:15 p.m.**

Harry and Ginny knocked twice at Ron and Hermione's door, but nobody seemed to have heard them. They tried again, but still nothing.

"Do you think they've already made up?" Ginny said with an uncertain look.

"I really hope so." Harry knocked another time. "Perhaps we're interrupting them, Gin, we should go away and—"

At that very moment a wand emerged from the door and a second later they saw Ron's face, contracted in an angry and furious expression.

"Whoa, take it easy, Ron!" Harry exclaimed, pushing Ginny aside. The redhead put down the wand and came back into the house. Ginny and Harry looked at each other with an astonished look, then came in after him.

Ron sat down on the couch, paler than ever, and put his head between his hands. Ginny looked at him worried, and sat down beside him, putting a comfortive hand on his shoulder. "Ron, what's up?"

Harry sensed his tension. "Is something wrong, mate?" he asked slowly, frowning. Ron seemed on the verge of talking, but remained quiet. "Where's Hermione?" he asked, more demandingly.

Ron took a deep breath. "She's been kidnapped. And it's all my fault."

Harry and Ginny looked at each other in disbelief. "What?" Ginny said, putting a hand on her chest.

"Raven's son kidnapped her." He quietly answered. "He wants his father back, and just then he'll give me back Hermione. And if I tell anyone, he'll hurt her."

"Oh my God…" Ginny whispered, with a hand on her mouth.

"Holy shit…" murmured Harry, shaking his head. "That filthy fucking bastard…"

"And the worst part of all this is that it's my fault." Ron was clearly holding back the tears.

"How can you say this?" Harry said.

"If I had been with her for our appointment, she wouldn't have been alone. Because she was completely and utterly right, I was so taken up by this bloody Raven thing that I momentarily fogot that she is and will always be my primary concern."

Ginny shook her head. "This isn't true, it isn't your fault. If this man decided to kidnap her, he would have waited until she was alone anyway." She said gently, patting his back.

"But I still feel horrible." Her brother whispered. "I just want her back with me. I just want to tell her how much I'm sorry, and how much I love her." And with that he put his hands over his eyes for a second. "God, how much I'd like to hold her right now."

"What are you going to do?" Harry asked slowly, his jaw clenched.

Ron shook his head. "There's no way I can make Raven out of prison, the Ministry would never let me do this." He said gravely. "And I can't tell anyone about her kidnapping, or I'll risk Hermione's life."

Ginny looked at him quite disheartened. "So what now?"

"I'll go after her. Dunno how, but I'm going to have her back."

Harry nodded. "We'll find her." Ron raised his gaze and met Harry's determined and brave green eyes. "Both of us. I'll help you."

"No, this is too dangerous, I don't want you—"

"You can't stop me." Harry interrupted him. "You and Hermione are my best friends in all over the world, you two stood up by me countless times when we were younger. Now I wanna help you, and you can't do anything but accept my help. Besides, you can't find her all alone."

Ginny nodded with a lump in her throat. "Harry's right, Ron. You do need a friend's help."

Ron took his sister's hand and squeezed it gently, while she smiled sadly to him. "Thanks a lot, guys. I don't know what to say."

"Then say nothing." Harry said with a brave little smile, fixing his glasses on his nose and winking at him. "Let's find our Hermione the soonest we can. There's a wedding in two weeks, and I'm supposed to stand up by my best friend, you know." 

Ron gave a little grin. "I bet the sweet couple will give you two extra keepsakes."

Here it is, chapter 4. Thanks to my reviewers, although I feel a little sad: less than ten reviews! Owww… L

Anyway I think I'll go on with my story…I think…

Well, we met Jeremy Raven in this chap: I'm sure he's a lot like Johnny Depp, yup.

Till the next time…this if I don't feel too sad for the lack of reviews and stop updating the story…who knows! 

Sunshine


	5. Looking for her

Disclaimer: what a change, Harry Potter and all the stuff is JK Rowling's!

LOOKING FOR HER 

Bye bye love, bye bye happiness 

_Hello loneliness, I think I'm gonna cry_

_Bye bye love, bye bye sweet caress_

_Hello emptiness, I feel like I could die_

                                                                                 Bye bye love, Everly Brothers

***************

Ron put down his cup and swallowed his coffee. It was about seven in the morning, and he was going to work, trying to seem as natural as possible, but actually he had a plan, or was trying to have one. He glanced at his watch, and in a matter of seconds he heard a 'pop' and Harry apparated in his kitchen.

"About time." Ron snorted.

"Hey, you said seven o clock, what's the time right now?" Harry spotted with an arched eyebrow.

"Ok, ok, sod off." He said, more serious. "Now, here's my idea. We can't directly access to Jeremy Raven, cause if his informers caught me, it would be a bloody mess."

"So what's your plan?"

"Yesterday, after you and Ginny went back home, I called my second Lex, pretending to know if he had success in his research since I came back home early in the morning, he was looking for names in any possible ways related to Jeremy Raven, and he found about a certain Kevin Lucas."

"Do you know this guy?"

Ron shook his head. "Nah, but now I know he's a sort of phantom help for the Ravens, his castle is in Ireland, not too far from Dublin, and he seems clean as a waterfall, although we all know he's a lucky and clever bastard."

Harry nodded. "I suppose we can't go there, knock on the door and ask him questions about his friends."

"Right. But we can do better than this. Our friend, here, likes very much getting drunk with the worst beer of the country."

"Which is Helga's". Harry said with a smirk. "We went there after a match, and spitted out all that horrible stuff."

"And now it's all up to you. You have to go there and get that Lucas boy. Make him talk, get him the most drunk you can, and listen to every single word he says."

"Not so difficoult for me." Harry shrugged. "But how can I recognize him?"

Ron frowned. "This is the hard part. He's tall, black, short hair, dark eyes."

"Is that all?"

"That's all, sorry."

Harry sighed. "Ok, I'll try and find him."

"Good. Now I've to go, I don't wanna waken suspects."

"Let's meet here at 18.00. and try your best to be punctual, please!"

Ron smirked. "Hey, it's you the poor bloke who has to go to Dublin and get drunk at lunchtime, not me."

Harry grinned. "My drunk version is more punctual than your sober one."

"Let's see this."

Hermione opened her eyes and blinked twice; she didn't understand where she was: there were four stone walls around her, it seemed a quite large cell, perhaps she was in the dungeons of a castle, or at last she thought so. Then she remembered the man in her house, and then the Stupefy course…she stood up and looked around and tried to find a little window or something, but she didn't find any. The door was locked from the outside, so she figured she was there as a prisoner. This made her shiver: why that man could want her there, she didn't know him. She tried her best to remember his face, but she couldn't remember a friend (or maybe not exactly a friend) with his face and body. She sat down again, with her knees against her chest, thinking about Ron…how much she would have loved to be with him at that very moment…and now he was her only hope to be rescued. But how could he find her? She didn't even imagine where she was held, nor her kidnapper's identity!

Suddenly the door opened and a dark, tall figure in black emerged. She bit her lip and immediately recognized her kidnapper.

"Good evening." The man said with a totally calm and peaceful voice. "How are you, my dear?"

She stood up with an angy face. "You! You took me here! Where are we?"

"In my castle, you're my guest now." He said michievously. Hermione's arms crossed over her chest, while she looked away angrily. "My, is something wrong with your room?" he said with a smirk.

She looked directly into his dark eyes. "You're sure you're the best one here, aren't you?"

He looked a bit surprised by her statement and her tone of voice. "What?"

She arched an eyebrow at him. "Whoever you are, wherever we are, whatever reason you took me, I just want you to know this." She hissed slowly and clearly, eyes burning. "Ron will find me."

Jeremy arched both his eyebrows. "Your little fiance is going to do as I say, he will not disobey, cause he already knows what I could do to you." And with that he took a step towards her. "So, my advice is….be nice, my lady, while you're here…where I can do anything to you."

Hermione looked angrily at him. "I'm not afraid of you."

The man smirked evilly. "Brave little witch, aren't you?" he said with an amused grin. "Rather beautiful too, I might add. This is very unusual: a pretty woman with dirty blood in her veins." He whispered, moving closer to her, until he was very close to her face. She tensed up and tried to take a step behind, but there was the wall. "Too bad you're a mudblood." He finally said, peering into her fuming chocolate eyes. She didn't reply, just looked at him with a murderous look. He laughed and made his way to the door. "Remember you're my guest, now. If you want something, anything, you must ask it _gently._" And then he went out of the room, locking again the door.

Hermione sighed deeply and let herself slide down along the wall, until she was with her back pressed on it and her knees up against her chest; she embraced her legs and put her head down on her knees.

Ron…please, come here…for once in your life, come to me first… 

Ron tapped his foot on the ground furiously: it was 18.30, and Harry wasn't there yet. And he _did _say they had to meet at 18.00! This was growing absolutely frustrating. He took another sip of beer from the bottle he had in his hand, and kept on waiting, fuming all over with his best friend and thinking about how many times Hermione had to wait for him…He shifted on the chair. When all this nightmare would be over, he promised to himself to be always punctual with her, cause she was worth every single sacrifice, just to be so wonderfully _her._ He missed her terribly, he simply couldn't think about anything but her. His Hermione. His fiancee. God, how much he wanted to go with her and choose everything she needed to make their wedding unforgettable now…He had been so foolish and superficial with her because of this Raven thing. Once they promised themselves they wouldn't let their jobs interfere with their love story; she had indeed kept her promise, but what about him? He knew perfectly well he hadn't.

A slight 'pop' echoed from the sitting room, and Harry came in his bedroom within a few seconds. 

"Where the fuck have you been?!" Ron spatted angrily.

"Hey, calm down a bit, you dickhead!" Harry said not quite nicely, letting himself fall down on an armchair. "It wasn't you the one who had to get drunk early in the morning, and with the worst bloody beer in all this damn country!" he put two fingers on his temple. "Shit, my head still hurts…"

Ron would have laughed about all this situation if it wasn't Hermione's life to be in danger. "Did you find Lucas?"

"Yeah, or his twin brother." He said. "He is just as you described him, but you missed something: he's the worst sex maniac I've ever met in 26 years of life."

Ron arched his eyebrow.  "And what about his phantom help to the Ravens?"

Harry shook his head. "That guy is a real safe. He holds up his informations very well, and I'm sure he was dead drunk."

"So you're saying it was all a failure." Ron seemed tensing up.

"Not all of it." Harry looked at him with a little smile. "Now we know he's got a woman."

Ron rolled his eyes. "How on earth could this be useful at all?!"

"Listen." Harry said, quite impatient. "He described her even in the details. I think we can find her and use her to get to him. She seems quite involved in whatever he's working at, too."

Ron glanced at him. "Good point. Go on, tell me about her."

"She's somebody our Hermione would describe as a real tart." Harry said with a little grin. "She's dead sexy, large breast, long legs, full lips and hips, blue eyes and short black hair. He said she's doing something very useful to him, apart from giving him sex pleasure, of course."

Ron thought about his description a bit. "Renee."

"What?"

"You've just described Renee Martin, my secretary."

Harry frowned. "She's doing something very useful…of course, she's spying on you! Her job is to inform Lucas of your moves, so he can know anything before you do it, and Lucas can tell everything to Raven. Shit, this makes sense."

Ron nodded, passing a nervous hand through his fiery hair. "And Hermione _indeed_ called her a tart."

"So, what now?" Harry asked, eager to do something, anything.

"Ok, we have to be very careful, it's Hermione's life we're playing with." He said thoughtfully. "First of all, tomorrow you'll come back to Helga's and you'll follow Lucas with your Invisibility cloak. I'll take care of Renee."

"But she knows you."

He shook his head. "I'll make a glamour to my face and body, I'll keep my identity hidden."

Harry nodded and smiled. "Ok, I'm ready."

Ron smiled to him. "Thanks, Harry."

Harry raised from his seat with a smile. "Stop it right now, mate. I'm too tired to argue about this, but another 'thank you' and I'll throw you down the window. Understood?"

"Understood." Ron grinned. "Sleep well, wine-lover."

Harry laughed. "I'll make you pay for this one, Weasley." And with a last wink he apparated back home.

The door of the dark cell opened again, and Hermione felt a huge wave of fear and rage in her heart. The dark and tall figure looked at her with an amused expression, and arched his eyebrows.

"Good morning, Miss Granger." She didn't look up. "How's your mood today?"

"Are you here to tease me?" she spatted out angrily.

He smirked. "Nice to meet you again too, my beautiful lady. Did you sleep well?"

She stood up bravely. "Can't you just go away and keep me there as your prisoner?! Do you have to come down here every minute and make my stomach hurt with disgust?! Leave me alone, you filthy bastard."

He licked his lips. "My, my…what a swearing…I can see you've spent too much time with that redhead auror." She looked ready to spit right on his face. "This…determination of yours…is really tempting…and sexy…" he whispered, nearing her and caressing her arm with a finger.

She pushed his hand away. "Don't touch me!"

He smirked and took three steps forward, until she was pressed with her back against the wall. "You should be tamed, you know…breaking you would be my new hobby, since your little boyfriend isn't going to show up for a bit." 

She looked pretty scared, although her face was brave and angy; still, her breath was ragged. "Stay away from me." She hissed in a very strong tone.

His hand started caressing the skin of her neck. "You're made of fire…and I like it."

She tried to push him away, but he pinned her wrists to the wall with his hands, pressing his body hard over hers. She screamed and began to squirm and fight him off. "Stop!! Stop it now!!"

He laughed with a cruel laugh. "Stop? I've barely begun." And with that, he lowered his head and started licking her neck and the crook of her shoulder. She tried her best to kick him, but he tightened his grip on her wrists and his strong body pushed her smaller one more against the stone wall.  When his mouth made its way down her upper chest, she felt very scared and useless, but didn't give up fighting. A moment before his teeth, tugging on her jumper, could tear her clothes off, a loud knock on the iron door was heard, and suddenly a voice boomed from the outside.

"Hey Jeremy, I need you right here!" 

Raven snorted and let go of her reclutantly: he looked at her, flushed, furious and bravely angry. God, if she was damn sexy….

"Don't worry, love." He whispered huskily. "There will be plenty of time for us." And with a final grin he went out of the room.

Hermione felt hot tears coming down her cheeks; she was scared of that damn man, she was absolutely, totally scared and too bad, completely in his power. She couldn't help but feel afraid and lonely….he could do anything to her, and this was bloody true….

Where are you, Ron?…please…I really need you… 

Tightening his grip on the sides of his Invisibility cloak, Harry kept on following the dark figure of Kevin Lucas, who had just went through a very little dark street in a city near Dublin. Lucas walked very prudently, looking around many times: in fact more than once, Harry had to step behind to be absolutely sure he couldn't sense his presence. _Damn, if that bastard knows how to be covered up!_, Harry thought.

Soon they reached a sort of dark pub, full of all those people Ron would have described as 'nice guys': that was to say, there was plenty of probably ex-Azkaban's prisoners, ex-Death Eaters and dark wizards and witches. Harry had to be extremely careful not to be touched by anyone there; when Lucas came in, many women went to greet him (quite pleased of the random grabs he took on their bodies), and a bunch of men waved at him confidentially; then Lucas went over the barman's table, giving him a friendly slap on his shoulders, and passed through a little door in a dark corner, which Harry had to hurry to pass through, too.

Eventually they ended up in a small room with a quite large fireplace; Lucas took another glance around, then brought a bunch of Floo powder and launched it in the fireplace; Harry took a step forward, eager to see the name of his destination, but he didn't say anything, he just hurried into the fireplace and disappeared in a huge green cloud.

Harry suppressed a yell of frustration; he thought they were at it now, but nothing! Then his mind calmed down a bit, and he remembered a thing; once Ron had told him the aurors used a different kind of Floo powder, which was able to send you right in the same place you ordered the first time you used it; that was to say, if that Lucas had once said the name of his destination, now he didn't have to say it everytime. So the last solution was to take some of the ash left in the fireplace and send it to a sofisticated laboratory of analisies of the Floo powder net. 

He took the ash and quietely disapparated.

Sorry it took a bit, but hey….there was Christmas and all!

Thanks very, very much to all the reviewers, I love you all, expecially if you keep on reviewing! ^^

Bye and best wishes,

Sunshine


	6. AUTHOR'S NOTE

Hi! I know you want to kill me, but this isn't a chapter, it's an author note.

I really want to say I'm very sorry for not updating since January, but I had very big problems (which, unfortunately, I still have); plus, the new life at University, the exams…what a mess this period was for me!

To all my reviewers: I feel very bad to say this, but for many reasons I think I'm going to update probably before or after summer. Sorry again, guys, I'll try and get a new chap on-line the soonest I can, but I don't think it will be that possible. Sorry, sorry, sorry! But keep in mind that I won't leave this story without an end, is this clear? Very good.

Plus, I wanted to say that I didn't know I only accepted registered reviews! This was until one of you reviewers told me…and I found it was between the options in my own profile! Sorry, guys, now the problem is fixed.

Well, I must go now…but the last thing: if anyone is too curious, feel free to e-mail me and ask questions about the story! Ok? Kisses,

Sunshine


	7. In the shadows of the dark

Disclaimer: Still nothing mine…too damn bad!

Author's note: I'm so royally sorry I haven't updated this in such a long time, but you see, I had countless problems…not to forget that my pc got wiped down for almost a month… SORRYSORRYSORRYSORRY!! Don't kill me! Read this, drop a review and then…kill me. ;)

**IN THE SHADOWS OF THE DARK**

_I'm standing on a bridge   
I'm waitin in the dark   
I thought that you'd be here by now   
There's nothing but the rain   
No footsteps on the ground   
I'm listening but there's no sound   
Isn't anyone tryin to find me?   
Won't someone come an' take me home?_

                                   Avril Lavigne, I'm with you

*****************

Ron glanced down at his watch, just to control if it was all settled. His glamour was ok, but it couldn't last more than three hours, and half an hour had already passed. He couldn't waste such a precious time. Why the hell that bloody bitch was late, by the way? This was where she used to come right after work, he had followed her the previous day and had found her getting drunk in that nasty pub in Knockturn Alley. Damn, it seemed that everyone in the last few hours could do nothing else but being late…_You deserved it, _Hermione's voice rang in his mind,  _for__ all the countless times you made me wait. _

The door of the pub opened at once, and there she was. Renee Martin, Miss Traitor Bitch herself. She blew kisses to all the men who greeted her in many ways – and they were quite a number – and casted a glance towards him. Ron tightened his grip on the bottle of beer he had in his hand. Now he had to control himself and start acting like one of those idiot blokes she was used to, or the plan would have failed miserably. _Let the games begin._

Moving seductively her hips, Renee came up to him with a brilliant smile on her face. "And who are you, baby? I've never seen you here."

He grinned at her. "Pleasure to meet you too, my lady."

She smiled even more brightly. "Oh, silly me. Such a pleasure it is." And she leaned a bit towards him. "Indeed." And with a wink she added "Well, this place is like my home, so if you need something, anything…I'd be…very happy to help you."

He raised his eyebrows for a moment, then flashed her a very attractive smile. "Maybe your name, to begin with."

"I'm Renee." She said, offering her hand.

"Micheal." He took her hand and kissed it. "But my friends call me Mike."

"So, _Mike" she bit her lower lip seductively. "May I have a seat, or are you waiting for your girlfriend?"_

He smirked. "I'm quite lonely this night, you know. And I'd be more than happy if you joined me, beautiful lady."

She grinned and sat down on the chair next to him. Then she glanced at his beer. "Is this for a particular reason?"

"Is this what?"

"This." She took his bottle in her hand. "To me it seems that you're tryin' to forget something…someone."

He grinned. "Are you always that able to guess about people's problems?"

She moved her chair closer to him. "Yeah…almost always. But I'm pretty good at helping people too."

He let his eyes wander up and down her body. "I can imagine this."

She laughed a bit, then resumed her seductive expression. "Well, I could help you."

He peered into her eyes until he grabbed a glass and put some of his beer in it, too fast to let her see that there was a bit of white powder** in it. "Here, have a drink." He said with a wink.**

She smiled and drank all the beer at once. He smiled even more. "It tastes…"

He put an arm around her waist. "…like me." He finished, with his sexiest voice. She raised her eyebrows and giggled. "Could I ask you why on earth a woman like you is all alone tonight? Don't you have a man who's waiting for you right now?"

She snorted and looked directly into his eyes. "My man is working tonight…"

"Working…" he whispered, nearing her mouth with his. "And what's his work that he manages to stay away from you?"

She stared at his full lips like mesmerized, and smiled slightly. "He's…doing an important job…you know, his chief wants him for an important mission…" she whispered.

"Oh yeah?" he said, brushing his lips against hers for a second. "…we have an important man here…"

"…yes…"

"I see…" he blew some air on her lips while talking. "…what, is your golden boy an Auror?..."

She smirked, moving her hands over his chest. "Of course, not…you'd really think I would lower myself to that scum?..."

He snorted, trying to focus on his goal. He would have been more than glad to strangle her right then and there. "…he must be not that great of a male if you're feeling so lonely right now…"

"I am…" she whispered. "…very lonely indeed…but Kev says there will be plenty of time for us after his chief will have killed the girl…"

_Hermione.__ He swallowed  hard and hid his face in the crook of her neck, kissing it softly while trying to imagine it was Hermione's sweet, soft neck he was kissing… "…nice chap your friend is…if he has to kill a woman to stay with you…"_

She giggled and moved her head a tiny bit, to let him kiss her neck properly. "…no…no, you see…this girl has to die…because her fiance has to understand who has the power in this world…"

He had the strongest urge to ripp her head off, but compelled himself to keep control of his mind and body. "…and aren't you jelous that your man is currently staying with this woman instead of you?..."

 She moaned when he licked a particular spot on her neck. "…I…don't care right now…"

Ron shifted slightly, and put both his hands on her bottom, molding it ritmically. "…and you're here with me…instead of going to your man…and knocking some sense in him…"

"…can't go there…" she moaned. "…don't wanna go…."

"No?" he came back to look into her eyes, all the time licking softly her luscious lips. "…too bad… tell me…is he with this girl right now?...that's why you're doing this with me?"

She shook her head, caressing his chest with her long fingered hands. "…Master is taking care of her…Kev is only doing his phantom-help job as always…"

Ron tensed all over, feeling his insides clutching in blind rage. _Master is taking care of her. He struggled to keep his voice cooled down, and palmed her long legs. "…where are they right now?..." He knew he shouldn't have asked direct questions, but this couldn't go on forever. Hermione was in real danger. _

"…can't tell you…" she whispered against his ear.

He bit her lower lip seductively, really trying to figure this was his Hermione the one he was seducing. "…yes, you can…"

She moaned again and he felt her hands on his very naked chest, under his jumper. "…Oberty St.John…Jonah's palace…"

That was it. He knew what she was talikng about. Jonah Miller had been captured and sent to Azkaban the previous month thanks to Ron's auror team, and he knew about his very big possessions in the Irish countryside. Where they were keeping Hermione.

"…stop talking about them anyway…" she tried to kiss him, but he avoided her. "What's wrong now?" she asked.

He smirked and took his hands off of her. "Thanks a lot, Renee. Always thought you were all tits and butt and no brain at all." 

She looked horrified, but had no time because he pointed his wand at her and whispered "Obliviate!"

*****************************

Hermione twisted her hands in her lap, trying to erase that horrible feeling of pure fear she felt in her veins. She was so afraid that Ron would be late again, too late to prevent anything horrible from happening. She desperately wanted to do something – anything – to help him and herself, but without her wand she could do very few things. No wands, no food and no sleep in two days and half. How could she sleep at all? Her most horrible nightmare was that damn Raven would come in and rape her. That was so fucking possible…

_Ron…_

God, if she wanted to be safe and sound in his strong arms again….She so wanted to feel his love for her, his warm body against hers, his masculine skin, his powerful scent, his wonderful adoring hands…she wanted him, all of him. And she was so scared not to see him ever again. Expecially when her last words to him had been bitter and furious.

The door opened loudly, and she kept on sitting in the corner of the room even when Raven's figure came into her view, smirking as always.

"Good evening, Sunshine."

She looked at him with a look of pure disgust.

He kneeled down in front of her and raised her chin with a finger. "What's the matter, little one? You don't like being here?"

She smacked his hand away. "Not at all."

He raised an eyebrow. "Be a little nicer.You're my guest, after all."

"I'm your hell of a prisoner." She spit out bitterly. "I wouldn't be your guest even if you were the last man on this planet."

He laughed. "Brave little witch. Altough you don't mean that."

She rolled her eyes. "Don't I?"

"Nah, cause I don't really want to kill you straight away."

She didn't blink. She didn't want him to see her scared. "You'll do it anyway. So don't pretend you'll leave me alone when you won't. I don't like to be fooled, if you don't mind."

He raised his hand to her face, cupping it. "I don't intend to fool you. I just want to take care of you the way you ought to be taken care of."

She glared at him. "You disgust me." She said, slowly and more bitterly than ever. "You're the most vile, pathetic excuse of a wizard in the Magic World I've ever had the misfortune to meet. You think you're the best just because your blood is bloody pure…but you're the lowest of the low, and soon you'll meet the same fate of your father, Ron will haunt you like a dog for this."

Raven wasn't smirking anymore. His face was twitching in rage, and when he took a step closer to her it was clear that he was just holding himself back. "You bitch." He hissed. "You'll see what happens when a filthy mudblood like you dares to talk that way to me. I'll have you begging for my forgiveness in less than a day."

Hermione glared at him and raised her chin. "I won't do such a thing."

He smirked, and a moment later raised his wand at pointed it at Hermione's chest, just over her heart. "_Venomena_!" 

Hermione stepped back without really breathing for a moment; it was like someone had punched her in the stomach, hard. Then her lungs slowly started having air again…but a sharp pain in her abdomen made her slid down against the wall till she was on the floor, gasping for air.

Raven grinned and put his wand back in his breast pocket. "This, little one, is a very interesting way to show you what kind of power I have on you. With this spell I've just put a good portion of venom into your blood…the more you'll have it into your veins, the more you'll suffer. From now on you'll have twenty-four hours to beg me to help you, but if you won't, then…sorry to waste such a beautiful body, but I'll just let you die."

Hermione felt already weak and feverish, but managed to glare knives at her enemy. "You'd wish."

"Your choice, little one." And with that, he left.

Hermione let out a moan of pain; it felt like there was so much cold out there in that room, but her body was hot and flushed and she was even sweating. A sense of nausea hit her hard, and her vision started to blur. She couldn't help but let two tears slide down her cheeks.

_Ron…help me…please…_

***************

Ron was wiping at his hands and chest furiously under the shower. He felt dirty and disgusting. He had snogged that filthy bitch, that fucking scum of a woman. It had been absolutely necessary, because she would have understood that he was drugging her otherwise, yet he felt a wave of nausea. Here he was, trying to drown himself under that hot shower, while _Master was taking care of her. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Hermione…if that damn bastard was hurting her…just the thought of her getting hurt was enough to make him feel like blood was pumping hard in his veins. His Hermione._

He saw her in his mind. He saw her waving at him, smiling behind a pillow under the light of  the moon, laughing at a joke between them, kissing him in that very shower, arching herself while he kissed her intimately, smiling tiredly at him after hours of making love, too tired to do anything but saying one last time 'I love you' before falling into a deep slumber over his chest or between his strong arms…

Ron came out of the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist. God, he hated Raven. He hated everything. There was no way he was going to let anything happen to her. He loved her so much it hurt, and he had to let her know. He had to have her again in his arms, right where she belonged, and never leave her again. _Never again_.

"Ron?"

Ron heard his best mate's voice and came out of the bathroom to meet him in the dining room. "Did you find it?"

Harry nodded, sitting on the sofa. "It's the connection to that palace, they said if we burn up this" he said, holding out a vial with a bit of grey powder in it "with usual Floo Powder, we'll be able to reach the last place that bloody Lucas went to."

"Good." Ron collapsed heavily on the sofa next to his friend. "That's it. I'm goin' to go tomorrow."

"What about the woman spying on you?"

"Already checked this. Lex offered to help. He'll go to work with a glamour, everyone will see Ron Weasley and not him."

"We're ready, then."

"_I'm ready."_

Harry glared at him. "I thought we already had this discussion."

Ron shook his head slightly. "Harry, you're my best mate and I really would like so much to have you like my right arm tomorrow…but I can't risk your life. Nor Ginny's happiness." He sighed. "I have to go, or they'll kill Hermione. If she is already…" a lump went straight to his throat. "…if they've hurt her…I can't live without her, so it's ok if I go and risk my life, my everything. It's Hermione and I, or none of us two."

"Thanks for your concern, mate, really…" Harry said, more determined than ever. "But I'm going with you. She's like a sister to me, and Ginny agreeds with me. And, if I remember correctly, none of you two stepped behind me when I was in danger. Or do I have to recall every single moment, starting from the Philosophal Stone?" 

Ron sighed and shook his head, then a little smile came out on his lips. "Yeah…I guess I'm more than ok if it's you my partner in this."

"Let's go find our Hermione." Harry smiled confidently.

Ron nodded. "Yeah. We'll find her. Listen, here's my plan…"

I'm still so sorry it took so long to come out! But be kind and review this anyway ^^

I'll try and write the next part in less than six months hopefully! ^^ No, really, I'll try harder! It's not my fault if University is filling so much my time!

Kisses,

Sunshine


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